Sango-Ota (Ogun), March 11, 2019 The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Itori Command, has apprehended three tricycle operators and two commercial motorcyclists that drove against traffic along Itori axis in the last one week.

Mr Sunday Oko, Itori Unit Commander made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Ota, Ogun.

Oko said the suspects were booked and asked to pay some money before undergoing two-day public enlightenment programme in FRSC office.

“This will serve as deterrent to other motorists as the time they could have used on productive activities will be used in watching video of crashes.

“Driving against traffic in the area is common among workers of the ICT Polytechnics, Itori.

“The FRSC will be going to the school during their Matriculation on Wednesday, March 13, to enlighten them on the importance of road safety,’’ he said.

The unit commander also stressed the need to enforce traffic rules and regulations to ensure sanity on Itori roads and its environs.

He advised motorists to desist from driving against traffic to avoid unnecessary loss of lives and property.

“Also a total of 2,627 were apprehended for overloading their vehicles with persons alone, bringing to a total of 4,235 in all.

“Meanwhile, in the course of the arrests, a total of 7,594 passengers were discharged to make way for adequate physical distancing in the vehicles, out of the 4,235 vehicles apprehended for conveying 17,614 passengers,” he said.

Kazeem noted that the corps had been able to evaluate performance in the last four weeks following the end of the first phase of the gradual ease of the lockdown.

He said that the corps was also able to identify areas of strength where significant achievements were recorded and areas where gaps existed.

Kazeem said that the corps had strengthened its capacity to address the identified gaps as quickly as possible.

He said that the corps would also sustain the tempo and to some extent, enhance the performance in the areas where it recorded huge success.

He noted that the corps was working in synergy with other security agencies through the instrumentalities of joint task force, mobile court operations and effective patrol operations.

Kazeem, however, said that collaboration was key to the success of the special patrol operations, saying that combination of the above strategies was expected to yield adequate result as expected.

Corps Commander Galadunci, who responded on behalf of the newly decorated Senior Officers, thanked the management of FRSC for their promotion and pledged their loyalty and dedication to saving lives and properties while carrying out services to the nation.

Oyeyemi said the call was necessary in order to flatten the curve of the deadly pandemic in the country.

According to him, the directive is to further reiterate FRSC’s commitment towards sustaining existing collaborations with the national, subnational governments and key stakeholders in the fight against the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

He said it was to further ensure that the order on restrictions were diligently and effectively enforced with all sense of professionalism, civility and resilience.

He charged commanding officers to ensure adequate deployment of personnel on all routes.

“As the nation moves into the second phase of the eased lockdown regime, personnel must show diligence.

“They must ensure total enforcement of inter state travels, compulsory use of non medical facemasks and physical distancing, amongst motorists,” he said.

Oyeyemi decried the alarming upsurge in deaths and spread of the virus across the country, which he said had become a major priority operation of the corps.

He ordered commanding officers to ensure the full utilisation of the work force through effective deployment of personnel to arrest without hesitation.

“Any motorist who contravenes the national orders by overloading their vehicles, violating directives on inter state travels and compulsory use of facemasks would be sanctioned.

“Except the vehicles and the occupants were accredited essential workers with proof of identification, conveying agricultural produce, manufactured goods or petroleum products,”he said.

Oyeyemi called on the public to take advantage of FRSC’s numerous public relations platform to report any driver sighted violating the Presidential orders.

“The public is hereby directed to call Centre through the toll free line: 122 or the studio of the National Traffic Radio, 107.1 FM through the telephone lines: 08052998090 and 09067000015 for immediate action.